Tuesday, May 05, 2015

Celebrating MVP Curry

Last night I attended a night baseball game at AT&T park. It was the 2015 version San Francisco Giants with World Series MVP Madison Bumgardner on the mound. MadBum was his 'fire-on-the-mountain' self, pitching a no-hitter into the 7th inning. The Giants would go on to beat the San Diego Padres 2-0.Leaving the park and feeling triumphant I spied out of the corner of my eye a T-shirt vendor yelling "Get Your MVP Merchandise." Figured I owed it to Bum, after pitching so MVP like, to purchase something with his name and/or picture on it. Then as I got closer to the vendor I saw yellow, heard the name Curry and before I could ask how much I was ordering a size Extra-Large. The day mind you, had been full of the great bay area sports news that Warriors point guard Stephen Curry had won the NBA league MVP. Everyone, myself included, had heard the Warriors star make an impeccably touching MVP acceptance speech earlier in the day. So a big, bright-yellow Curry MVP T-shirt, fresh off the printing press was in order. I was all smiles with plans to wear it tonight while watching the Warriors vs Memphis game.After walking about a block with the T-shirt over my shoulder I couldn't contain myself and had to take another peek at my MVP treasure find. It was then, under the brighter street lights, that I'd discovered a slight flaw in my MVP purchase. The color was vibrant, the lettering and spelling flawless, but one of the two images printed on the front did not look like Curry at all. Out of my mouth came a high pitched cry "Iguodala!" referring to Curry teammate Andre Iguodala. Actually the image in the #30 Warriors jersey looked like a cross between Igoudala and former Warriors guard Monte Ellis. Maybe its the darker complexion and/or the facial expression. Maybe the goatee. Whatever the cause of the picture distortion, I was dumbfounded and felt cheated. But the day was still a triumphant day. So just as quickly my mood went from anger and disappointment to laughter and complete "Shit Happens" mode.I will wear the T-shirt throughout the rest of the playoffs and hopefully will laugh all the way to a Warriors championship victory with MVP Curry leading the way. If you've read all the way through this little sports encounter of mine then the least I can do is reward you with a peek at the T-shirt.So go ahead my friend. Look, Analyze and then Laugh at my little MVP treasure until your heart's content. Go ahead, I can take it. They can fool me once. But you can believe when I hear a vendor yelling "Get your Champions T-shirt" next month, I'll be scrutinizing every inch of it. And should I spy anything unusual or out of place, like Manute Bol in the team photo, someone's gonna get hurt.